Making Progress!!!

So I made some major progress on the wool jerkin I am making.  It is now all together finally after a ton of hand-sewing.  I looooove the way it's turned out, however it took a lot longer than I thought it would. 

I had to find a collar pattern from another doublet pattern and had to adjust it 1 1/2 inches for it to fit right.  At first when I attached it, I thought I'd need to redo it since the ends didn't come to the front of the jerkin, but after the man tried it on, I realized that it was perfect that way so that it wouldn't choke him or overlap itself when the jerkin is buttoned. 

The gold and light blue lucet cord just looks fantastic against the teal of the wool.  I'll need to get a picture of him wearing the whole outfit in the sunlight to get better lighting.  To finish this thing, I just need to hand sew the lining at the arm holes and add buttons.  I'll be doing the button holes tomorrow afternoon so that it can go with me to Round Table on Saturday to be completely finished!

Wool Jerkin/Linen Doublet

So I finally made myself cut on the wool and start the jerkin and doublet this weekend.  Friday I had a friend come over to get fitted for a cotehardie (just had to modify a pattern to fit her right) and so cut out the linen doublet and sleeves while she worked on sewing her project together.  After I had the linen doublet all cut out, I cut out the wool and started hand sewing the lucet cord on the two front pieces.  I have to say this may end up being my favorite jerkin I've made so far and I'll be sad because he's only going to be able to wear it a few times a year.

This is the first part of the jerkin as I was sewing on the cord.  I ended up using a disappearing ink marker to mark the scallops and lines.  This worked fairly well except that i had to remark the other side after I finished sewing on the first half. The hand sewing of the cord didn't take as long as I was expecting so I'm happy to be finished with the main pieces this weekend.


 This is the first side which I finished Saturday night. (sorry for the dark picture)

And this is the finished front of the doublet.  I'm still debating on sewing cord down the outside of the buttons or not.  I do plan on putting a collar on, cord around the seam between collar and neckline, and then the bottom skirt will have cord as well.  I still need to cut out the bottom skirting, collar, and epilets.  I should have this whole thing done by next weekend if I continue to work on it. :)

Working towards Gulf Wars

Alright so now is starting to be crunch time for Gulf Wars.  Ainsley is now going with us so she needs a week's worth of clothes.  Gulf Wars is harder to plan for since we are never sure if it's going to be warm, cold, wet, all of the above?  Last night I opened my house to those in my Barony for a UFO (unfinished objects) night and I was able to cut out and sew together a viking apron for Ainsley.  I have been using the same pattern for years since my friend HL Christiana showed me how to make the pattern.  I use the pattern from Viking Apron dress by Vigdis (her webpage seems to be down so thankfully I have a printout).  I'll have to see if I can scan the pattern and post it somewhere for later use.

The fabric I used was given to me by a friend who got it from a family member.  it's a remnant piece of fabric from a person who makes curtains, slip covers, etc so it's a thicker  piece of fabric which will come in handy for the cold mornings/days.   One side is almost all orange and white in relief and the other side was mostly white with orange.  I let Ainsley pick which side she wanted to be the right side of the fabric

This is the front of the apron dress.  I still need to hem the top and bottom, otherwise it's completely done.  It came out soooo cute and she'll look fantastic in it.  Right now Orange seems to be the color she wants to wear since she has another apron that was given to us in the same color.

This is the back of the apron where the triple gore is.  This is the hardest part of the pattern to get all together, flat, and even.  For Ainsley's garb I don't worry too much about it being even, just had to make sure there isn't a hole at the top of the gore (have to go back and hand sew just a little on the middle gore to fix a hole).  Even with the busy fabric, it looks pretty good, not too wild.

 

 This is one of the side gores that ended up having a flower in the middle so it give extra detail :)

I'm very pleased with how it came out and can't wait to see it on her.

Men's shirt and Pants

So a few weeks ago I went to a friend's house to get help with a new shirt pattern and pants pattern for the man.  She has a husband who only wants period pants so she knows all the tricks of the trade.  I've had so many problems in the past with in consistent crotch lengths and waist fit issues.  I can't help that he gains and losses weight but the pants are either waaay too big or waay too small so it's hard for him to wear several pairs.  I have finally nailed down the crotch and leg length and just need to correct the waist band.  These venetians were also extremely easy to make and will take no time to repeat as needed.

Next on my list is the wool jerkin/linen doublet.  I need to cut out the wool portion of the jerkin (top piece, also referred to as a doublet) mark up where i want the lucet cord to go and hand sew it on.  I need to have this whole project done by the beginning of February so that I can make a german dress for myself in preparation for Gulf Wars.